A Facebook post gives weight watchers an unusual weight loss tip. According to the post, one fart burns 67 calories, and 52 farts in one day can burn up to one pound of body fat.

The far-fetched weight loss tip gained attention lately after thousands of weight watchers noticed Google search results pointing them to a Facebook page called “F A C T,” which made the claim in an August 2012 post without citing any reliable source to back it up.

The fact that the post has been shared widely and several online weight loss forums have discussed its theoretical and practical implications suggests that despite appearing to be a silly idea, some weight watchers may have seriously considered means of increasing their daily fart production to replace or complement time spent in the gym.

And judging from the proliferation of online references to the idea among weight watchers on the lookout for novel weight loss tips, grocers must have scratched their heads trying to explain the sudden spike in sale of beans, and many may have guessed rightly that a new healthy diet fad is pushing sales.

“… and we are over at the gyms wasting time…”

“… go and fart the whole day for a Victoria Secret body.”

“A new workout schedule…”

“Ok guys, what am i doing wrong?”

Snopes suggests that the anti-social weight loss tip may have originated in 2009 from an internet troll responding to a question on Chacha, “How many calories does farting burn?”

According to the troll, “The amount of calories burned by farting would depend on how long the fart lasts and how much energy you use to do it. Some people believe you can burn up to 67 calories by releasing gas.”

But the same page on ChaCha has more credible responses.

“Not sure but people who snore burn more calories while resting… it is simply the release of gas through your…”

“Yes, you burn calories when you fart but not very many. You also burn calories…”

“Sadly, the act of farting does not expend any calories.”

There are indications that weight watchers had been wondering about the weight loss efficacy of farting long before the suggestion that a single fart could burn 67 calories emerged online.

A weight watcher on Yahoo Answers had asked in June 2008 whether one can actually burn fat by farting — seriously!

“I have heard of burning fat through your breath,” the weight watcher asks, “but since starting my workout regimen two weeks ago, I’ve been farting a lot… am I burning fat when I fart? Please this is a serious question, no joke… Can you burn fat by farting?”

“Please this is a serious question, no joke… Can you burn fat by farting?”

Needless to say, by the time you are seriously considering if jerking up daily fart production could help your weight loss program, you probably need help of a kind that has nothing to do with weight loss.

We know, of course, that the body burns calories constantly even when at rest, and it does not take much thought to appreciate that merely relaxing the down under muscles to release pent up pressure of sulphide gases while chilling out on a hammock couldn’t possibly be a candidate procedure in the search for new ways to save lazy weight watchers time at the gym.

But the website Fat Loss School advises lazy f**ts out there that you may achieve a measurable increase in calorie dissipation by expending extra energy contracting the belly muscles for more forceful and noisy expulsion of bowel gases.

In addition to calories burned through contraction of your abdominal muscles, straining yourself to the limit to release bowel gases could raise your heart rate significantly, depending on the degree of violent expression of flatulence you are able to achieve. But not even the best heart rate increases you could obtain through contraction of your abdominal muscles to expel bowel gases would help “fat burning” if you aren’t doing squats and lunges while working to expel the said noxious gases.

But by the time you are actually doing fart squats and lunges as part of your weight loss program, you may as well ditch the kooky idea altogether and head for the gym — don’t you think?